Birth stories, every mum has one, some good and some not so good. When I was pregnant I felt like all I heard was horror stories of birth (and pregnancy for that matter). Unfortunately, I don't have the best birth experience. At the time it was scary and traumatic, I don’t say this to scare anyone just to encourage you to listen to your intuition and whatever you do, if you’re almost due, take your baby bag to the hospital!

I had a birth plan, like many pregnancy books tell you to do. I wanted a natural birth, minimal pain relief and if possible a water birth. I wanted to embrace the moment of my baby coming into the world. The problem with birth plans however is that if they don’t go to plan you can be left extremely disappointed.

My baby was extremely active in utero so when his movements started to slow down I was a little concerned. It was a Thursday when the movements started to reduce but I got checked by the midwife and everything appeared normal so I thought to myself I must just be paranoid.  By the Saturday morning I woke up convinced something wasn’t right but I still just kept telling myself I was worrying over nothing, “he was fine 3 days ago and nothing would have changed”.  Later that night there was barely any movement at all and I decided to go into the hospital. I told my husband not to worry about taking the bag, we would probably be sent home. I was 36 weeks and we lived 20km from the hospital what was I thinking?!!?

After being assessed by the doctor, I was told I would have to have an emergency c section as my son’s heart rate kept dropping and he would not survive induction. Due to a medical condition, I couldn’t have an epidural and I would need to be under general anesthetic. As I was getting ready for theatre my husband raced home to get the bag. I was assured when I woke hubby and baby would be next to me. When I woke up they weren’t there. Tom had a ‘code blue’ was taken to the NICU for intubation and emergency blood transfusions. My placenta had ruptured and he was bleeding into my blood stream. Tom was born at 3:30 am and at 6:30 pm I got to meet him, those hour’s in between felt like a lifetime.

He spent nine days in the hospital and then we were lucky enough to take our healthy little miracle baby home.

It can be easy to focus on the negative and the disappointment of a traumatic birth and everything that went wrong. But now I focus on what went right. When wee tom was born he was in the best hands, he was saved by the medical staff and at the end of the day, that’s all that matters.

Please always listen to your gut, go and get checked if you sense something's wrong. And get checked again if a few days’ time if you still feel something is wrong. Listen to the doctors they have you and the baby’s best interested in mind. And whatever you do take your baby bag to the hospital!

A FREE COPY OF THE HOSPITAL BAG CHECKLIST